How much fruit and veg is best for good health? Even more than you think

By Sam Downing| 2 years ago

800g of fruit and veg a day will keep you healthy, researchers recommend.

You know how we’re all supposed to eat more fruit and vegetables to improve our health? New research indicates we need to eat even more than that.

After analysing scores of studies, a team from Imperial College London has recommended upping the daily dose to fruit and veg to 800g to give the best odds of warding off heart attack, stroke, cancer and early death.

Apples and pears, citrus fruits, salads and green leafy vegetables such as spinach, lettuce and chicory, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower were linked to reductions in cardiovascular disease risk.

Green vegetables, such as spinach or green beans, yellow vegetables, such as peppers and carrots, and cruciferous vegetables were linked to a reduction in cancer risk.

"Most likely it is the whole package of beneficial nutrients you obtain by eating fruits and vegetables that is crucial is health,” said Dr Dagfinn Aune, lead author of the research from the School of Public Health at Imperial, in a statement.

“This is why it is important to eat whole plant foods to get the benefit, instead of taking antioxidant or vitamin supplements (which have not been shown to reduce disease risk)."

That 800g is twice the current British nutrition guidelines recommending five “portions” of fruit and vegetable a day, where a portion is equal to 80g — totalling 400g of fruit and veg a day.

Doubling that to 10 portions, or 800g, could prevent an estimated 7.8 million early deaths around the world every year, according to the Imperial team’s calculations.

"We wanted to investigate how much fruit and vegetables you need to eat to gain the maximum protection against disease, and premature death. Our results suggest that although five portions of fruit and vegetables is good, 10 a day is even better," Dr Aune explained.

In Australia, the government’s dietary guidelines recommend about five serves of veggies per day (where a serve is defined as around 75g) and two serves of fruit a day (a serve is about 150g) — so our daily guidelines are already pretty close to the 10 “portions” recommended by the new guidelines.